Biplanes in the Fast Lane
by juliazatyko
Summary: After witnessing the horrors of war and barely surviving, we find Korra who must battle herself as she deals with the aftermath, and with three elements short not less. But will the stress or relearning these elements and finding her way in the world once more be too much for her? And what will happen as global international tensions emerge? DRABBLE. T4LANG. Distant future love int
1. Chapter 1 exhumed

The cold bitter wind stung Korras face as she walked by the waters' edge. She was home. The scents, the sounds, the cold were key indications if this, but it did not feel like home. Her mother's hearth emitted a constant warms to battle the chill, but not energy was obtained. The ocean gave a bountiful harvest of fish and sea slugs ripe for native water tribe dishes yet gave no intimation of friendship. The ice was the only stable quantity in her life; earth had lost all meaning of strength.

When avatar Aang started his training at the age of eleven, he had full understanding of air. _Korra_ at sixteen years of age was starting from complete scratch. With a minimal understanding of her last remaining element, the future certainly did seem bleak. There was no reason to suspect any further violent action by citizens of otherwise, so she had more than a half year to complete the task, but truly what was left? Her entire identity had been wrapped up with concept of what the Avatar should be, and she had fit the role so well, but it was gone now. She was gelatin removed from the mold, no definite structure, or stability. Herself image had irreparably changed; the hard tough plastic shell was gone. What can a clam, an oyster, call itself without its outer casing? Is a human still human without its skin? Would money still be money if it was printed and not minted?


	2. Chapter 2 blue

Why are they blue? Korra wondered nonchalantly.  
Plenty of things were blue in the South Pole. In fact the entire continent seemed to be enveloped in a blue hue. Blue was the Water Nation color the color of the ice they lived on and the color of choice for most clothing. To say the least, the Water Tribe people were very much accustomed to the color blue, but Korra was SURE that fingers were not supposed to be blue.


	3. Chapter 3 Towers

She had been wandering for many hours. Not days or nights as the typical author might make you believe. If I said that I would be lying to you. But in the south pole just a few hours is enough. The Celestial Ice Towers found her in that time. These natural sculptures of ice carved away from glaciers an carved by the howling winds and polished by the shifting temperatures of late fall glimmered like crystals and evoked awe and wonder more powerful than the mystery of stone henge.  
Korra walked up the enormous pillars of frozen glass and peered into the distorted image of herself.  
Her nose had been made small and her cheekbones made impossibly large. Her eyes were her own towards their inner corners but soon veered off in a reckless north-ward path to form a menacing cat-like appearance.  
She had seen these pillars once before, when she was a small child. Mother had brought her there when her father was ill. A seizable lump had formed on his neck impending his ability to breathe and mother had become desperate. Healers could do nothing for him. Spiritual guidance was necessary.  
The Ice Towers were a place to seek guidance, a place where ghosts or enormous power capable or good or evil could dwell. They lived in the cores of the pillars and could only extracted through extreme sacrifice and or threat, and mother was willing to do either in order to save Father.

Demons in the form of tears began to eat their way out of Korra eyelids, scarring the flesh as they cascaded down her face.  
She lifted her hand to swat them away and was shocked to realize that her left hand, which she kept carelessly ungloved was frozen solid to the second phalanx.


	4. Chapter 4 Clouds

The elements has always come easy to Korra. She was told that even as a baby she had perfect balance. She could play outside in the frigid air for hours without substantial clothing and not suffer at all because of her affinity to fire and neither rain not sleet nor hail bothered the child as the water element kept her from being eternally soaked , although this trait had become increasingly common among the southern water tribe as Northern Water masters had integrated with the intent of both finding suitable and subservient wives and aiding their cousins in building the tall firm ice structures indicative of the northern architects. Korra's own mother was a water bender, although a fairly poor one at that. She could preform the usual tasks of defrosting ice for the soup pot and stirring said soup pot, but was without a particularly adept knowledge of healing skills and very little knowledge of combat. Even one so weak and feminine as her mother could do such little things, even her mother could brave the damp and frozen, yet Korra was helpless in her state. She would not air bend with her fingers permanently stuck in rigid half-fists and when the sky turned dark fear crept into her heart.


End file.
